The great binder clip hunt

One of my favorite times of year is Back to School season. Not because I have an affinity for the moans of young children as summer's end draws near, but because cool office supplies are in abundance. Ha, bet I've lost you all now, since, you know, it's not actually Back to School season. Well, that's the reason behind this post, actually.

Now, I told myself a long time ago that when I finished a full-length manuscript I would do two things: 1) I would get said manuscript printed out so I could luxuriate in its papery goodness, and 2) I would hold that papery goodness together with big, sexy binder clips. For some reason, I have always associated manuscripts with binder clips, so this seemed like a fantastic idea.

Then, of course, I finished a manuscript in March.

So Boyfriend and I went to Office Max. There we printed my manuscript out and searched for shiny new office supplies. I felt like I deserved delicious new goodies in which to rip my writing to shreds. Unfortunately, I usually binge on such supplies during back to school season, where there's an actual selection.

We grabbed some Sharpie highlighters, but found that there were no boxes of red Bic pens. And the binder clip selection? Totally wussy. They were all small and black. They couldn't hold 20 pages when my manuscript was almost 400. It was a disappointment, but we left the Office Max in good spirits and headed towards our other options.

There was nothing promising at Fred Meyer but some cool Post-It notes. Staples was home to the rare and elusive box of red Bic pens, but their binder clip selection was just as weak as Office Max's. Maybe this should have been an issue--but I had seen shiny fleur-de-lis binder clips there just a couple months ago! Wal-Mart was the last option, and while there were colorful binder clips, they were still so small. My manuscript was three inches thick. Where was giant binder clip for which I was searching?!

Simply enough, it was nowhere to be found.

I know they exist. You know the ones I'm talking about. Those giant binders clips that, if necessary, could work like a tourniquet for a young child. I've seen them before. So have you. But their absence, plus the strange rarity of those red pens brought me to a conclusion: no one cares about office supplies in March.

The moral of the story? August and September are the blessed months of the office supply nerd. Go shopping then.

In the end, I bought a butt-ton of small and medium binder clips, which I've been using on individual chapters of my manuscript. Someday though, mark my words, I'll find the ultimate binder clip. The god of binder blips. And you can bet that I'll be scoping the stores come Back to School season.

Wow, my hand looks extremely deranged in this picture. Also, binder clips!

So what about you guys? Do you have a fetish for office supplies? Can you only work with a special writing pen or with a specific brand of post-its? Or is any old thing good as long as it works? Also, how do you feel about binder clips? Tell me in the comments.